


Recall

by Annabel_Lioncourt



Category: Alien (1979), Alien: Isolation (Video Game)
Genre: Androids, F/M, Robots, WITH FEELINGS., Weyland Yutani is horrible and I want to take all their Synthetics away until they, also i am always here for weird ships, and starcrossed stuff, and ~things~, but language, i love weird ships, learn how to treat them nicely, my downfall is things/people that are not supposed to have feelings having feelings, rated for safety I could have probably gone with a T, so here's our grumpy engineer and her too-good-for-his-own-good android, synthetics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-23 01:37:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11979372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annabel_Lioncourt/pseuds/Annabel_Lioncourt
Summary: What should have been a wonderful morning goes to hell when a news broadcast from Earth gives a message from the Company.





	Recall

late February 2138, Luna

 

            Amanda Ripley didn’t sleep through the night very often, not so soon after her return from hell. Because of this, there was no morning when Christopher Samuels wanted to cut her sleep short, but _this_ morning he would have rather been shut down than have to wake her early.

            However around three o’clock he was snapped out of partial-power mode by some distant sense of distress. He didn’t move, careful of Amanda, who appeared uncharacteristically calm, and almost happy in her sleep. She also happened to be tangled up with him, a mess of limbs and sheets, her bare skin warm against his own, and the reality of the cliff he just jumped off of finally sank in. Gently with the hand she wasn’t sleeping on top of, he reaches up and brushes her hair away from her face. It was surprising, after the rather mortifying events of the night before, that she stayed there, and looking _pleased_ at that. They were unsure at first if he even _could_ take part in what she was suggesting, and then finding that his inhibitors considered intimate contact as something to be prevented. Without her direct orders, he could hardly move; she had to talk him through everything. It was far from the romantic experience she was probably hoping for, but she still kissed him when they were through, put her arms around him and didn’t let go.

             The situation was almost ridiculous, no, it was absolutely ridiculous, he couldn’t think of anything stranger. Their whole arrangement sounded like a joke. _And yet… in her own words, fuck whatever anyone’s going to think or say, I want to be here._

            There it was again though, a silent, nagging beacon in the back of his skull. _It’s just one of the inhibitors, probably still operating in circles_.

            She had told him that they’d have to find a privately practicing roboticist off-Luna to remove the programs, but he declined immediately. Without them in place, what would happen if he suddenly malfunctioned? He’d be no better than the Seegson creatures, and Amanda wouldn’t stand a chance. No, no. They’d just have to deal with it.

            It had been three hours since that annoying notification started, and the sun was slowly coming up over Earth to light the Luna landscape. It was raining lightly, a preprogrammed atmospheric occurrence that happened thrice a month, to help keep the air clean and the sky unclouded. Filtration in the drainage systems of the inhabited parts of the Luna took out any pollution, and evaporated them back into the atmosphere at night. Amanda liked the sound of steady rain, and would likely sleep through it for another hour.

             Normally, around this time he’d leave her for the kitchen, put on coffee for her, sometimes he’d even walk to the bakery for pastries on the weekend. And, if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t particularly want to immediately discuss last night’s disaster. Her praise sounded honest, but he couldn’t _imagine_ how little he compared to previous human lovers. Whether she seemed satisfied with the eventual outcome or not, it was a harsh reminder of the fact he was a computer in a human shape. With no lack of regret, he gently lifted her arms off of himself, carefully rose from her bed, and dressed. Soft blue light from her bedside clock illuminated her face, framed by her messy hair was still restful.

               Her kitchen was stocked poorly, despite her recent windfall of settlements from the company. Samuels was usually the one who ended up attempting to shop for something healthier than her instant noodles and frozen dinners. Usually, that meant that he had to cook for her too before she was back from work, or else it would all go to waste. How she managed to survive on her own for so long he’d never understand. For now though he put coffee on for her—again, if she had done it she would have just made instant, being too impatient to wait for the real thing—and would ask her if she would like to go out for breakfast. Though she wouldn’t admit it, he knew she liked the café that overlooked the ravine, and on a morning with previously unscheduled rain, people would be too annoyed by the weather to notice that there was an android watching his operator far too closely to be seen as emotionless.

               The notice bugged at him again, and he turned on the television monitor for some kind of external noise to help drown it. The set was an ancient, hulking thing that Amanda had resurrected as one of her projects—their holographic one still mounted in the ceiling for vids that weren’t compatible with the antique. He set it to the only news broadcast on Luna.

               “— _folks it looks like rain again tomorrow if the systems need draining. Radio function will be down for fifteen minutes during a UV burst to burn out the bacteria that may have formed in the upper atmosphere due to this situation._ ” Not that he didn’t already know this: Luna was quiet, and save for gossip, very little in the way of “news” ever happened. _“A message from Weyland-Yutani was released yesterday morning on Earth, 3:10 Morning Time here,”_ now _that_ caught his attention

          “ _Yes, it seems as if several protocols in one of their previous Synthetic models have proven hazardous to their own welfare. A statement was given from the company’s New York offices and Tokyo offices simultaneously, that anyone in possession of a 2131 Executive Model Synthetic, referred to in-company as ‘Samuels,’ should report with it to their local office immediately. Replacement with their updated 2135 Executive Model, free of charge, with initial programming installed, is being offered in place of—“_

         By nature, nothing could technically ‘surprise,’ him, but he had multiple focuses centered on the news story and the detached expressions on the reporters’ faces, that he failed to fully register Amanda in a Weyland-Yutani standard issue shirt—his standard issue shirt—taking a seat next to him, snaking her arms around his waist and was startled by her.

         She gave a quiet laugh at him coming back to reality. “Morning, Chris…” her sleepy smile was nearly unnerving, such a stoic and business-like young woman being so gentle.

         “Amy, look.” She straightened up, and her drowsy posture and expression turned military as she focused on the TV.

         “ _The recall is mandatory. As of now, the company assures its patrons that the model is not a threat to its operators, merely to itself and surrounding technical implements. Retirement for the model and it’s programming is set to begin at—_ “ Amanda stood up and shut the TV off.

         “What the _actual_ _fuck_ ….!” It wasn’t a question, and wasn’t aimed at him either.

         “I can…I could download some of my memories for you, and overwriting them,” his eyes never left the set, even after it went dark. “It would be for your sake of course, I don’t personally care what they think of me, but I don’t want them…thinking less of you for any of this. Copying them won’t take long, but overwriting them will. Still we should be able to make it to the office before they close.” He was quiet. It was surreal to think of his own ending; he would know nothing. He’d cease existing. It’d mean _nothing_ to a level that even he was incapable of computing. The shade of understanding it still bothered him, it was close to fear, and of course…he never wanted to be far from her again.

         “You’re kidding aren’t you?” she asked sharply after his silence.

         “A technical threat is still a concern, and I haven’t been brought back to full function even _after_ the re-loading into the spare module—as it is, I was set for retirement once they figured out what I had done—“

         “And I brought you home instead. And stop saying that ‘retiring’ shit! They’re fucking killing them en masse because they’re self sacrificial, because they’re— _because you’re_ too goddamn _nice_.”

         “That’s not what—“

         “Think about it. What did they say was wrong with you?” she looked down at him; her mind was going a thousand miles an hour.

         “Amanda I never want to leave you alone again, but if there’s even a slight chance that I could—“

         “Shut up. Just. Stop talking.” It was an order, and she knew it, and she knew that meant that he’d have to listen to her, “You _fucking died_ for me. For us! Going directly against orders. Your lack of acknowledgement for what those assholes wanted you to do—“ he rose from his seat too and looked her close in the eye “—what do you want to say?”

         “I still had to follow out their orders. I was able to shut myself down through APOLLO because I wasn’t going to see you infected and killed with those things. The company would tell me you were expendable, just like what they did to your mother.” He reached out, hesitant, and when she didn’t back away his inhibitors let him go on. He held her by the shoulders “I couldn’t do that.”

         “Your ‘damage’ is that you have a soul, and a sense of right and wrong, unlike any of the pathetic excuses for humans that run that _shit show_ of a company.” She was right and he knew it. Not the part about a soul of course, he wasn’t delusional enough to think that he was real enough to be entitled to that much. But as for his malfunction, she was spot on. As usual, there was no arguing with her.

         “I think they’re trying to call the models back directly, I felt some sort…notification last night. I thought it was one of my protocols shouting at me over my—” despite the circumstances, he offered a grin with his following words “—decidedly poor behavior.” Amanda shook her head at him, trying very hard not to laugh. He was trying to distract her, get her to cool down, but it backfired. Her laughter escaped as a suffocated cry, and he could see tears welling up in her eyes.

         “Honey, if you think that was poor behavior then you are light-years more innocent than I thought, and I’m going to have to work on that,” she said, taking his hands off her shoulders and pulling them down and around her waist instead. She laced her own around his neck. “You’re not going back. I’m keeping you,” she sounded so resolute he almost believed her. Almost as if it was programmed instinct, he tightened his embrace so she was against him. “Now, if you can get that supercomputer in your thick skull to actually think of a plan, that would be great.”

         He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “If you’re not regretful or otherwise mortified over how things unfolded last night, then I do have a plan. It has nothing to do with the recall, and it’s probably not a well thought out plan, but—“

         Amanda’s face fell, “Seriously?.”

         “What?”

         “Logic. Reality check. Think with your brain, not with the thing that I don’t even want to know _why_ the company saw fit to include in your design.” If he could laugh he would have, at the absurdity of everything, if nothing else.

         “I am thinking logically, if I only have one day left with you then I know exactly how I want to spend it.”

         “ _Samuels_. “

         “Alright,” it only took him a moment to come up with a real idea. “Technically this body is 2135 model, my software is all that’s marked as a 2031. If I can find some recent programs and install them as a firewall, I could make it look like the main interface to anyone who tries to pry into my data storage,” it was far fetched, and he hated unnecessary programs, it made him feel like his insides were heavier than his outsides. “Maybe it’ll be enough to fool whatever intern they’ll have checking them as they come in today.”

         She thought through it, all the while keeping her hold on him, and it seemed sound enough. His original body had been destroyed at Sevestopol, burned in the reformatting chamber, and further damaged by the vacuum after the station broke apart. The only outward difference between this new body and his original one was that the eyes didn’t faintly glow in the dark, or so he said. She never witnessed that with his old one, but was particularly grateful for that update. There was also, on the third vertebra down from the neck, a manufacturing date lazar engraved in the steel. If they did take him there, had him looked at by an intern or a new kid in the company that didn’t know any better…it might even work. Luna was the only WY off-world office between Venus and Ceres, their Mars office not handling Synthetics in favor of focusing on terraforming technologies, so their office would be quite busy.

         “I’ll accept that,” she said relinquishing her hold on him. “But I don’t trust you to not wonder off in the meantime, and turn yourself in out of some bullshit idea of gallantry,” she looped a finger between buttons of his shirt and tugged him with her slightly as she backed towards the hallway. “So I don’t want you out of my sight while I shower,” she let go and walked down the short hall to the bathroom, leaving him confused.

         “The shower door is far too opaque to see through, it would be very useless for me to stand there while you—“

         “You’re getting in with me, Chris. That’s the idea.”

         “….. _oh._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if this is going to fit in the main storyline I'm working on, but as I work on it I'm going to keep going back and polishing previous shorts/one shots to make sure they all fit.  
> This ship (and fandom?? Isolation makes for a GREAT expansion on the Alien-verse???) deserves so much more activity and love than it gets, so I felt obligated to offer what I could. Thank you <3
> 
> Oh and the missing three hours of time in the beginning of this where he isn't moving isn't a mistake. He just stayed there. Watching her sleep for three hours. Like a creep.


End file.
